I tell big, hungry stories

My Top 5 Favorite Fantasy Couples

“We are all a little weird and Life’s a little weird and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it Love.” This quote has been attributed to Dr. Seuss, but I can’t find a source for it. However, it will be included as a part of our wedding ceremony today!

Yep, this is a pre-scheduled post, because at 11:30 this morning, Brett and I are vowing to laugh together every day, and to each be the other’s biggest fan. (Yes, those are our vows!)

Here are my criteria for my top Five favorite Fantasy Couples list

This is Fantasy, not sci-fi (that’s tomorrow’s post!)

I don’t like the relationships where one member of the couple is hundreds of years older than the other (think vampires). I am actually looking at these as healthy relationships as exist in their own worlds, and I don’t think hundreds of years’ difference in age makes for a lot of common ground between two people

I am purposely not counting relationships in the paranormal romance genre. They are romance novels, of course they have love stories. I’m looking at the rest of the books for love stories between equals, between good matches, between people who just belong together.

#5 – Beren and Lúthien (The Simarillion and mentioned in The Lord of the Rings)

Technically, Beren and Lúthien should be just as excluded from this list as Arwen and Aragorn are by virtue of age difference. The reason why I am going to let them slide is that it’s Tolkien’s Mary Sue love story about his wife and himself. I love that the heroine doesn’t let the hero quest on his own.

#4 – Shrek and Fiona

A love story about being true to one’s self and one’s nature. That, I can get behind. They are perfectly matched in wills, wits, stubbornness and kindness. Though Fiona’s far prettier.

#3 – Merlin and Nimue

I couldn’t keep the Arthurian Legend off this list! Don’t be silly! However, I get really tired of love triangles. Even though the love triangle between Art, Lance and Gennie is the Grandaddy of Love Triangles, I don’t think that any combination of that trio is as compelling a love story to me as Merlin’s quiet relationship with Nimue. Sometimes (often), Nimue is the Lady of the Lake, sometimes, she’s Merlin’s apprentice. Often, she is the one who brings about his death (which is not necessarily a bad thing). I love this story because it changes every time I hear it. I love it because it is always about love.

#2 – Molly and Arthur Weasley

J.K. Rowling wrote some amazing love stories in her Harry Potter series. While I enjoyed the Epilogue and who married who at the end of it all, the love story that I feel like we got to see more than any of the others, is Molly and Arthur Weasley’s. (If Snape’s love had been requited by Lily, that one would have trumped it. But I’m talking about bonafide Happily-Ever-After couples.) I don’t think there is a subtler or more pervasive example of a married couple who make it work than the Weasleys. Molly and Arthur love one another completely, with utter devotion. They love their kids. They sacrifice for the people they love and the things they believe in. They fight side by side. This is true love.

#1 – Wesley and Buttercup fantasy

As the impressive clergyman said (while Buttercup was not marrying the wrong fellow) “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam…”

I admit it, I’m a sucker for the fairy tale romance, the true love that brought Wesley back from being mostly dead all day. I always thought they were a bit of a mismatch. Wesley’s a bit brighter than Buttercup, isn’t he? But in their world, and in that fairy tale, they are perfect for one another. And that’s what matters.

Related

Post navigation

2 thoughts on “My Top 5 Favorite Fantasy Couples”

I like your choices! Most of my favorites are all sci-fi so I look forward to seeing what you share tomorrow! I want to throw out a suggestion: Mistborn’s Elend and VIn (he’s a noble, she’s a street rat–they so supportive of each other, it’s just… awesome and sweet).